Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) is a Telegraph features writer, novelist and broadcaster. His website is jakewallissimons.com. Follow him on Facebook here and on Twitter here. His fourth novel, Jam, which is set in a traffic jam on the M25, is out now.

Yesterday, Rob Ford, the city's scandal-ridden mayor, was politically castrated when councillors voted to drastically reduce his budget and confiscate his staff. His response was predictable enough: he yelled at members of the public and charged at opposition councillors, barging over an elderly lady (now that's "bullish").

Everybody has their own favourite Rob Ford quotation. My own has to be his comment on cyclists: "My heart bleeds for them when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day."

Yet from a British perspective, the oddest aspect of the story is Toronto's seemingly indomitable affection for its mayor. It is only now, after months of scandal, that public confidence in him is finally starting to dip, and not particularly sharply.

The reason for this reveals the sharp divisions within Canadian society. And while it would be simplistic to offer a like-for-like comparison between different countries, it seems certain that there are lessons here for Ukip.

First some background. Toronto is a divided city. In 1998, six separate municipalities were merged as a "cost-saving measure" by the Government of Ontario. This led to a huge increase in levels of municipal staff, while ambiguity surrounded the question of whether money had actually been saved.

People felt that they had been deprived of their local identities. Even today, in many districts, such as Scarborough and North York, the old names are still defiantly used. The issue is given an added bitterness by the fact that in a referendum on the question in 1997, more than 75 per cent of voters opposed the amalgamation; it was forced through anyway.

Ironically, the unification only entrenched the distinctions between people living in different parts of the city, particularly between those with a 416 (inner city) area code and those with a 905 (the outer suburbs).

Among the metropolitan 416-ers, there is a visceral hatred of Mr Ford. In the more conservative 905 suburbs, however, where people are pro-car, pro-booze and pro-sport, voters feel unfairly removed from the levers of power. Here the mayor commands widespread affection.

Indeed, now that Mr Ford has claimed to have "come to a Jesus moment" and given up alcohol, his star may ascend once again. Among conservative suburbanites, there is an American-style belief in the redemption of the sinner which makes a man one of the "folk". Think George W Bush, whose straight-talking style combined favourably with an alcoholic past and born-again Christianity to win over Republican hearts.

The most interesting part of all this is that Mr Ford is something of a contradiction. His father was a wealthy businessman, and he grew up in Etobicoke – a 416 area – in a mansion that his father had built. Yet such is the thirst among the 905-ers for a figure to represent them that this fact is happily overlooked.

The mayor's low-tax, small-government agenda places him firmly on the populist Right, while his volatile temper and colourful private life mark him as a more genuine figure than the more polished professional politicians dominating Toronto city hall.

Canadian divisions may not map precisely onto Britain, but the rise of Ukip has demonstrated that we too live in a split society. From the perspective of Ukip followers, their needs and views are simply not represented by the overly polished political elite known as Lib-Lab-Con.

Of course, Nigel Farage's cigarettes and pints are nothing compared to Mr Ford's crack pipe and drunken stupors. In Toronto, where tensions and divisions are even more marked, the suburbs have an even greater appetite for the "ordinary guy". They may have even taken to Godfrey Bloom.

Ultimately, however, Mr Ford has demonstrated that if you are able to secure the affections of your constituency, and convince them that you are "one of them", you can get away with a great deal. This message should give succour to Ukip – so long as they don't push things too far.